Fatal Attractions
by reliantkfan
Summary: Hailey is a normal 16 year old girl who is just trying to go through life unnoticed. But when she meets a young boy named Seth, will she ever be the same?


My eyes flashed open. I saw the white ceiling of my room and rolled over onto my stomach. I felt the sheets tangle at my feet. I kicked them off and pulled my knees up to my chest. Another nightmare. I stared blankly at the wall. Terrified to close my eyes again. They slid over to the alarm clock. 3:34. I still had another three hours. I shivered and reached for the covers again. I pulled them up to my chin and watched the ceiling fan move in slow circles. My eyes drifted over to the door. Next to it sat my black converse. Sitting where they always did. From the converse, my eyes carried themselves to my dresser. Piled high with music CD's and books. I looked at the clock again. The red numbers blinked at me in dim light of my room. 5:22. I decided it was close enough. My feet hit the cold floor and I searched desperately for my slippers. Once that little adventure was over, I snuck downstairs to make some breakfast.

_ Mom must have already left,_ I thought. The bulky briefcase wasn't sitting on the couch where it had been that night. Her heels had left little spots in the carpet where she had stepped across it. I wiggled my toes inside my monkey slippers, trying to wake them up. After that, I flung the pantry door open. There was a loaf of bread, a few canned items, a half-eaten cookie still left in the jar, and a box of cheerios. I grabbed the box and shook it a little. There was about enough for one bowl. Cereal it is_._ I got some milk from the fridge and set it on the counter with the cheerios. I checked the clock on the wall. 5:48. As I chewed I thought of the all the crap waiting for me at school. I thought it best if I just tried to forget about it. I focused on my cereal instead. When I was fished I put the bowl in the sink and hustled upstairs.

I looked at myself in my full length mirror. I looked like a mess. My blonde hair was frizzy and sticking out in all directions. The summer camp t-shirt I had on was twisted awkwardly around my waist. I yanked it back into place and scrambled for a hairbrush. When I had calmed the beast which is my hair, I peered into my closet. I found a nice red blouse that I hadn't worn since last Chirstmas. I wiggled into my favorite pair of jeans- the kind with rips in the knee –and laced up my converse. When I looked at myself in the mirror I felt I had met the expectation that I had for myself. A stray strand of hair snuck its way into my face. I started looking through the dresser drawers. When I opened the bottom one, a lovely red headband smiled up at me. I pushed it into my short, blonde hair and took one last look at the alarm clock. 6:02. _Good, I'm a little ahead of scheduele. _I reached for my bag and made sure I had all my books. _Science. Check. Pre-algebra. Check. History. Check. _The only thing I was missing was my spiral notebook for math and my calculator that Mr. Hornes- my math teacher –had no idea about. I found them both under my bed, gathering dust.

I sat on the couch for a little bit while I waited for the bus. A few minutes later, the big, yellow menace found its way to my house. The doors eased their way open to let me on.

"Hey Hailey!" Abigail smiled and waved at me from one of the seats further back. I smiled back and went to go sit with her. She was a red-head with braces and was one of those friends that no matter how hard you try, you just cant ignore them. She was my best friend.

"Hi Abigail. Did you finish the history assignment due tomorrow?" Abigail hated history. No, hated isn't quite the right word. Loathed is more like it.

"I worked on it all night! And I'm _still_ not done," she gave me her "If you help me, I'll do your math homework for you" face. "If you could help me finish this one little project, I'll help you with your math homework. I hear Mr. Hornes is a real pain." She sempathised, trying to win me over. But how could I say no to Abigail? She would look at me with big, green eyes and beg until I did.

"Fine. But this is the last time I'm doing your schoolwork for you." Which I knew was a lie. She smiled anyways because she knew I was lying too.

We stopped at Cole Emmer's house next. He hopped eagerly onto the bus and flashed us a big grin. Cole was a short, black haired, class clown. The complete opposite of me. It amazed me sometimes how he could always be so perky. Even when his dad wasn't able to pay the bills and his mom had left them when he was little. It didn't stop him.

"Hello ladies. Beautiful day, isn't it?" he parked himself in the seat right across from us, next to Billy Cay. I wouldn't have described the day as beautiful. Or even pretty. Like most days, the sky was covered in clouds. Not a hint of sun to be found. Of course, it wasn't raining, so I guess you could call it a fine day. But certainly not beautiful. The only time I had seen beautiful weather was when I was just six years old I was going to visit my grandmother in Oaklahoma. The sun was so bright and warm. Grassy fields and old, white country houses. Horses and farm stock every time you turned your head. I remember sitting in Nutmeg's saddle and grandpa leading me around outside their house.

I listened to Mr. Hornes give us a lecture on obtuse angles for an hour, and sat down with Abigail and Cole during lunch.

"Hello there, future Mrs. Mackey!" Cole said and winked at me. Abigail giggled.

"I have no idea what you're-" Cole flipped out his phone and showed me a picture of Marcus Mackey and me at a party. I had tripped on some wires and he was the only one who felt bad enough to help me up.

"It's going around the whole school," Abigail giggled again "I wonder if Marcus has gotten it yet?" she got a mischievious look in her eye. Cole must have noticed to, because he immediately came up with some whacky distraction. It probably had something to do with Billy, whom Abigail was head over heels for.

"Hailey! How does my hair look?" she asked with a little panic in her voice.

"Yeah it's fine, why?"

"Because Cole thinks that Billy is going to ask me out today," she grinned from ear to ear "Isn't this just fabulous!"

I just laughed and patted her on the back. I gave Cole a little kick in the shin to say thanks. He smiled back. I hadn't noticed before, but suddenly the entire cafeteria went silent. Even Abigail shut up. I scanned over a few heads to see why everyone was so quiet. I saw him. He was tall, with an extreme tan. His shaggy black hair hung loosely in his deep, chocolate brown eyes. This guy was seriously ripped, he had to be around 18. I caught a few of the murmers from the group of girls next to us,

One said: "Wow! Who is he?" Another: "I don't know I've never seen him before." He was extremely good-looking, but his looks were dashed by a frown that looked like it had never been turned around in his life.


End file.
